Mohammed Rashid Saeed-Alim, a failed English suicide bomber better known by his birth name Nicky Reilly, has died while serving a life sentence. He was 30.

Originally from Plymouth, Alim attempted to bomb the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter in 2008 when he was 22. He used glass bottles filled with nails, caustic soda, and paraffin but one went off prematurely as he prepared them in the restaurant’s bathroom.

Alim was hospitalised with facial wounds that required skin grafts, then prosecuted for the bombing. He admitted attempted murder and preparing an act of terrorism later that year and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of eighteen years. He had considered alternative targets including a police station.

Alim had a mental age of around ten. He also had Asperger’s syndrome and his mother said he had been manipulated by others. Police said at the time he discussed his plans online and they suspected Pakistani individuals to be responsible for his radicalisation following conversion to Islam. Alim himself left a note in his bedroom saying amongst other things he had not been manipulated. His mother pursued a complaint against police in 2010 over claims he had told people of his plans to perform a bombing but police allegedly ignored this.

His body was found on Wednesday at HMP Manchester. Greater Manchester Police said there were “no suspicious circumstances” while the Prison Service simply noted the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will carry out a routine investigation. The Plymouth Herald reported unconfirmed claims Alim was found hanged.

Alim served most of his sentence at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital. This July he was sentenced for an attack on Broadmoor nurses with an accomplice. The pair used mugs and snapped DVDs as weapons after a change to rules on group Muslim prayers. One of the victims was Muslim.

Last year Kazi Islam, 19, was sentenced to eight years after being convicted of trying to pressure an autistic man into building a pipe bomb. Islam said he was inspired by Alim’s case.